The Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) is an application layer network management protocol that enables management information to be exchanged between network elements (NEs) and a network management system (NMS). SNMP, which is part of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol suite, is defined in internet standard STD 15, RFC 1157.
Typically, an NMS manages a plurality of network elements each of which includes an SNMP agent. Each network element gathers management information pertaining to itself and in some cases the network around it. The SNMP agent makes this management information available to the NMS via SNMP.
SNMP may be used in a variety of telecommunication networks, or data communication networks, including Local Area Networks (LANs) or Wide Area Networks (WANs). Network elements, which are sometimes called network nodes or managed devices, may take a wide variety of forms including routers, access servers, hubs, computer hosts, printers, switches or bridges.
In some cases, an SNMP NMS may be required to manage network elements that do not support SNMP. In such cases a proxy agent, or proxy, is provided to mediate between the SNMP NMS and a non-SNMP network element. Conventionally, a respective proxy is devised for each type of non-SNMP network element. Such proxys are considered to be inflexible since they are configured specifically for a particular type of network element. As a result, conventional proxys cannot readily support changes in the network element, additional management features or changes to the Management Information Base (MIB) which stores the gathered management information.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a more flexible proxy agent.